New Steam Play Expands Linux Support

Valve announces the launch of a new beta version of Steam Play for Linux
users, following last week's
indications that something like this was coming (thanks Bill). Steam Play is
Valve's name for the program that gives customers to the Windows, macOS, and
Linux editions of their games as part of a single purchase. Up until now this
relied on whatever platforms developers chose to support, but now they announce
Steam Play will allow Linux gamers to play Windows games using Proton, a
modified version of Wine, the not emulator. Proton is free, open-source
software, and it is available
on GitHub. They are supporting a limited number of games with this first
beta, and plan on enabling more titles in the near future. Here's word:

As a result of this work, today we are releasing the Beta of a new and
improved version of Steam Play to all Linux users! It includes a modified
distribution of Wine, called Proton, to provide compatibility with Windows game
titles. Here are some of the improvements it brings to the table:

Windows games with no Linux version currently
available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client,
complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.

DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on
Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance
impact.

Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen
games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without
interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a
virtual desktop.

Improved game controller support: games will
automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more
out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of
the game.

Performance for multi-threaded games has been
greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.